In today’s world, there is Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, Reddit. The list goes on and on!
All of these platforms are designed for one thing: to distract you and let you never, ever get anything done that’s worthwhile!
OK, that might be harsh – but seriously! These platforms can be very unproductive and you can fall into a rabbit hole you won’t be able to get out of for hours.
So, how can you stay productive on a daily basis? Some people have odd ways of staying focused (one coworker of mine used a standing desk to stay energized).
Well, from the odd to advice that makes sense, we asked 6 Entrepreneurs to give their tips and advice:
Scott Christ, founder of Pure Food Company:
“I use Google calendar along with the Google tasks app on my mobile to make checklists of the most important things I will work on each day. When I have my laptop open the first tab I open every day is my Google Calendar, which shows a list of all my tasks. Other stuff inevitably comes up but having those items to check off my list every day front and center where I can see them makes me much more productive.”
Kyle David, founder of the Kyle David Group:
“One way to become more productive is to assign a reasonable amount of time to a task. Parkinson’s Law states that you’ll fill the time you allot to complete a task, whether you give yourself one week or one hour. Learn how to plan for your day. Go through everything you need to complete and give yourself a reasonable timeframe to do it in. Want to catch up on emails? Give yourself thirty minutes. Want to finish up that report that’s been sitting on your desk? Give yourself an hour. By assigning an amount of time to your tasks, you’ll be more likely to complete them in that timeframe, instead of becoming distracted and dragging them out until they become so daunting that you may abandon them completely.”
Sandra Scott-Allen, founder of Otis Skincare:
“It’s really important to keep your energy levels high, so it’s always good to get a good night’s sleep and to eat healthily – but the most important thing I do every day, is to exercise. I try to do this first thing in the morning – either going for a quick run or a strength workout with a kettlebell – always something to get the blood pumping and the energy flowing, then I can tackle anything.
Secondly, if I have a long list of things that need to be done, you can bet that none of them will be!! So, I try to pick just one to tackle. It can either be the easiest, something that I can complete quickly and get an immediate sense of achievement or the most important one, this will take longer, be harder, but will have the most impact. Either way, it’s important to just focus on one step at a time.”
Vin Amin, founder of Eu Natural:
“Staying productive is a challenge and can be overwhelming when I fall behind. There’s a lot of tasks and projects being managed at one time, and keeping on top of everything is key to growth for our team here at Eu Natural. One trick I use to keep focused is set monthly and yearly goals of what we want to achieve, and then write it down clearly in plain view on my desktop. I can reference this list daily to make sure we’re hitting our targets and staying productive.”
Rob Stretch, Founder of Nostalgiaville and ColoringBooks.com
“Staying productive as an entrepreneur can be challenging. It can be really easy to get pulled in a million directions and focus on the wrong things. The system that has worked for me is selecting a ‘north star’ metric and putting systems in place to improve that metric each day. For my e-commerce businesses, a metric is a raw number of sales. So I try to improve that metric every day just a little bit. I am a big believer in the power of compounding – setting up systems that make incremental changes toward your goal each day. Your SEO campaign might only generate a few high-quality links per month, but over time your growth will begin to compound as your website grows more authority. The trick is staying focused on the metrics that matter and not getting caught up in vanity metrics.”
Zach Benson, founder of Assistagram and 6 Figure Dancer Academy
“Delete YouTube and the Facebook app off of your phone. If you need it, use the Facebook messenger app. Don’t look constantly, just check your email and social media messages 3 times a day — morning, noon and evening. At the end of the day, plan out your next day and prioritize things! Put the most important things first, and so on.”
Do you agree that staying productive can be tough in this day and age? Well, what do you do to make sure you get your work done?
